Fowl drinking fountain



Patented Feb. 5, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE I rowr. DRINKINGFOUNTAIN John Franz Feck, Norwood, Ohio Application April 15, 1947,Serial No. 741,593

2 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in fowl drinking fountains of thetype that operates on the barometric principle.

An object of the present invention is the provision of a fowl drinkingfountain that is extremely simple in construction and economical'toproduce.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a fowl drinkingfountain that is formed of flexible material whereby, in cold weather,it

can be readily separated from ice before refilling and without thenecessity of first melting or thawing the ice.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of a fowldrinking fountain that discourages chicks and the like from settingthere on and thereby contaminating the same and the drinking watersupplied thereby.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a fowl drinkingfountain that remains upright in the desired operative position and isnot readily upset thereby spilling the drinking Fig. 1 is a top planview of a fowl drinking fountain embodying the principles of the presentinvention.

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of the drinking fountain of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical central sectional view of drinking fountain of Fig.1, as seen from line 3--3 on said Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view of a fowl drinking fountain similarto Fig. 3 but illustrating aslight modification in the construction.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of one half of the drinking fountain of Fig. lthe other half being substantially identical in plan and left 01f of thedrawing to save space.

Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view through a fowl drinking fountainsimilar to Fig. 3 but illustrating a slight further modification in-theconstruction.

Fig. 7 is a bottom plan view of one half of the drinking fountain ofFig. 6 the other half 2 being substantially identical in plan but leftoff of the drawing to save space.

Throughout the several views of the drawings similar referencecharacters are employed to denote the same or similar parts.

Chick or fowl drinking fountains operating on the barometric principleare old but those heretofore used had inherent draw backs which havebeen eliminated by the construction of the present invention and as willbecome clear.

The chick or fowl drinking fountain of the present invention comprises acontainer in and a base H in the form of a dish or saucer. The containerIt] is formed, in general, of conical contour having a main portion 12of frustro-conical construction and a top l3 of a true conicalconstruction. The top portion l3 terminates at its upper end in asubstantially sharp point It. The container I0 is hollow and hascomparatively thin walls with the lower ends of the frustro-cone or mainportion l2 open.

The base II is provided with a flat body portion l5 having its uppersurface 16 relatively flat and smooth. At the periphery of the bodyportion is an upwardly outwardly extending flange II. The upper end I8of the flange I1 is spaced from the wall of the frustro-cone i2 therebyproviding a trough IQ for water for access by the chicks or fowls.

In practice the frustro-cone body portion 12 of the container has thefree end 20 of its wall in contact with the upper surface [6 of thesaucer or dish disk-like body portion l5. Furthermore at one point thefrustro-cone body portion [2 is provided with a 11018.4)1' aperture 2!that communicates with the trough l9. It should be noted that the upp rend of the aperture or hole 2| is always below the free end I8 of thesaucer or dish flange I'l;

In order to place the chick or fowl drinking fountain in condition foruse the container in is removed from the base I l and filled through theopen end thereof. The base H is then inverted in position on the openend of the container ID with the normally upper flat face of the sauceror dish body member I5 in face contact with the free end 2!) of thefrustraconical portion l2 of the container, whereupon the fountain isinverted and placed on a suitable support, the floor, ground or othersupport in the brooder or chicken house. The water within the containerin flows through the hole or aperture 2| into the trough [9 until thewater level 22, within said trough, rises to a point to .15 seal off thesaid hole or aperture 2| whereupon further flow from the container It isstopped. This operation is in accordance with the well, known barometricprinciple.

By forming the body portion l2 as a frustrocone and the top as a truecone the capacity of the container rapidly decreases per unit of lengthfrom the open end to the point M. Upon placing the fountain in positionfor use the water is to a large extent all positioned near the open endof the "container"!!! andithereby providing a comparatively-largeairspace 23 in the container l beneath its top l3 and the smaller end ofthe frustro-conical body portion 1 2 and thereby adding considerableweight to the bottom: or support end of the fountain. By thisconstruction it will be readily seen that a considerable weight isdisposed at the base .of the drinking fountain and a considerable forcewould be required to upset the same.

It has further been found that by forming the container [Baas :well asthe dish or saucer H of flexible material, rubber forexample, asufficient-'.seal-iis."obtained atthe open-end of the container :byrmerely placin the free end 213 of the container bodyzportionwwall onthe surface 19 of the basebody portion .15 to prevent leakaage or:seepage between'said engaging faces. Furthermore ibyxforming'thecontainer 19 and zthe dish orysaucer l it of flexible material, such asrubben-zandshould theewater within the con- 'teiner and :dishor-saucerpfreeze the said dish or saucer :I I ;can..-be stripped fromthe ice in much the same rmanneriasnthe ice cube forming tray in'ame'chanicalircfriger-atorsisstripped from the .ice cubes-after beingformed or frozen. The ring -of icepleftxiat the-endxofnthe container I0can be then broken away whereupon the container 1-0 is stripped from the:ice within the container.

The upsetting :of chick:or.fowl fountains is frequently andzgenerally{caused by the chicks or fowls tending to set or roost on the top of thefountain. As "well :known chicks and fowl tend to ,follow one anotherand perch adjacent to one another'and it isthe operation of their wings"in alighting andutaking off that they upset the equilibrium ofthefountain. By form- 'ing the container top '13 as *a comparatively sharppoint 14 the chicks are discouraged from setting or roosting and-shouldone balance itself on the point 14 no other would attempt to perchalongside since there would :be nothing but sharplyinclined'walls;toperch on. In this way and-due to the fact of theweighted base, effected by the watervin-the fountairnthe chick or fowldrinking fountain-sis prevented from being. upset and displaced.

It may be :desirable toxeffectT-lai more permanent .connection-w'f the.container and the base or dish or saucer H and any 'suitable ordesirable means. may beemployed-to effect this. .As illustrated dnEigs..4-and 51a more permanent connection of these parts :is effectedbyforming in the dish onsaucer *body.;por,tion [5 a groove 24 of a width-to-snugly1 receive the free end of thecontainerwall. It istorbeunderstood that this connection will not prevent the. stripping of thedish .or'saucer. ll fromice should same form in thetroughdland .thatthecontainer. Ill-is stripped froman-ydce. that may form thereinin the samemanner as abovedescribed.

It may further be desirable to provide some means to anchor the chick orfowl drinking fountain against bodily displacement along the floor,ground or other support, and for this purpose, and as illustrated inFigs. 6 and 7, the bottom of the dish or saucer body portion 15 isrelieved as at 25 thereby providing a rim 26 downwardly projecting fromthe periphery of the said dish or saucer body portion I5 and formingin-effectzaa' *suctioncupi'fbelow the dish or saucer II.

It is believed the operation of the modification in Figs. 6 and 7 isobvious since a downward pressure. on the chick or fowl drinkingfountain assembly will dislodge air from the suction cup 2.!zandithereby cause a frictional connection betweenthe. chick or fowldrinking fountain and its support.

Thermodification of Figs. 6 and 7, similar to those above described, ispreferably formed of rubber vor other flexible material to incorporatetherein the .advantages of the constructions above described.

In view of theforegoing .it is believed now evident that there-has beenprovided a chick or fowl' drinking fountain that overcomes theobjections to prior structures and accomplishes the objects-initiallysetforth.

Whatis-claimedis:

1. .A deformable poultry drinking fountain of the-barometric type,coniprisinga dish-shaped and .base' may be separated and stripped 'fromeach .other and from ice resulting from water freezing .insaid containerand trough.

2. -A deformable poultrydrinking fountain as defined inclaim .1 whereinsaid flexible "base has an imperforateinwardly recessed bottom to pro---v1de suctionengagement with a generallyplane supporting surface sothat said fountain is not :easily .upset.

JOHN FRANZ FECK.

.nEEERENoEs .oizr'nn The zfollowing i'references"areofrecord in the fileof this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS .Number Name Date 369,351 Lomax Oct. 1, 1867609,755 Chapin Aug; 23, 1898 1,299,091 Wygal- Apr. 1, 1919 1,536,699Whitman; May 5,1925 1,729,912 JITolley- Oct. 1, 1929 1,785,921 Thompsonet .al. .Dec. 23, 1930 1,805,772 .Lamarre May .19, -1 93 1 1,839,516Dains Dec. 1, v1931 2,188,962 Sengbusch ,Feb...6,- 1940 2,215,630 Wrightet .al Sept-24, 1940

